From every mouth except Vivian’s.
Her forehead lined with confusion. “Why would a theater manager inform you rather than me?”
“Well…” Jacob shoved the letter into his pocket, belatedly realizing he did not in fact have a good explanation that didn’t involve unmasking himself as Sir Gareth Jallow. “I… That is to say, you’re aware that I have friends who are writers of some renown…”
“Poets, not playwrights.”
His cravat felt too tight. “Yes, well, professional scribes of considerable fame and status. One such individual put in a good word for you at the Olympic Theatre—”
“Why would they do that?”
“Why would… someone… champion you to the theater?” Jacob swallowed. He’d hoped she would be too overjoyed at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to worry about how, precisely, it had come about. “You know I’ve read your plays. They’re wonderful. You’re an excellent writer, which is the very topic my weekly group discusses.”
Vivian narrowed her eyes. The rest of his siblings were smiling and nodding. He’d waxed poetic about Vivian’s abilities to them, too.
“Given your stellar talent,” he pushed on, “of course I would rave about your work as an example of criminally overlooked craftsmanship. If an individual then took it upon himself to—”
“Who authorized you to interfere on my behalf without so muchas enquiring whether I wished for such intervention?” she snapped.
Jacob halted. Though his lips moved like a fish, no sound escaped.
His siblings watched avidly.
“Who has the biscuits?” Graham whispered.
“Here.” Marjorie passed them down the line.
Jacob kept his focus on Vivian and tried again. “Remember, word of mouth isn’t trickery. It’s a good and natural thing. Opining you deserve to be published is simply stating the truth. You believe the odds are stacked against you, and you’re correct. You know you’re at a huge disadvantage. So why not accept help when you can?”
“Please listen to my words.” Vivian poked her finger into his lapel. “I haven’t worked this hard to become an annoying favor some theater manager must suffer through solely to curry the blessing of some white male poet.”
“Er,” he said.
“Isentthat play to the manager of the Olympic. He said never to contact him again. This has nothing to do with me being good at what I do. It’s not about my work at all.”
“The manager now realizes—”
“—that he has a big important friend who saiddo this. Your manager didn’t have a choice. He’ll appreciate my work even less now.” Her eyes glinted with anger. “This is yet another way Wynchesters are dangerous. You act rashly in others’ names, even when they don’t want you to. And then people like me are left to suffer the consequences. At best, this theater manager will throw on a halfhearted afternoon performance and call the favor fulfilled.”
“But if otherwise your play wasn’t going to be performed at all—”
“I want my work to be performed by choice! Only by earning the honor on my own merit will I ever be taken seriously as a playwright.”
“You said yourself, that plan is not working. You’ve been tryingfor years—”
“And I’ll keep trying for decades more! Eventually, someone will have to recognize good work when they see it.”
“You don’t believe that any more than I do,” said Jacob. “Youknowthe world isn’t fair.”
“I want it to be,” Vivian said achingly. “I need there to be hope, not just for me, but for all the others who… Doing everything in my powerhasto be enough to make a difference.”
“Does it? You couldn’t leave Demerara on your own power,” he pointed out. “Sometimes we have to accept help in order to realize our—”
“Is this where you wax poetic about your angelic Baron Vanderbean, the white man who saved you all and delivered you to lives of wealth and privilege?”
“I wasn’t going to,” Jacob said. “But now that you brought it up, that’s a brilliant point. Without Bean sharing his considerable advantages without hesitation, many of us would still be—”
“One question,” she interrupted. “Did your precious baron abduct you against your will and arrange your future without your knowledge or consent? Or did he present options, and allow you to choose what you’d like to do with your life?”
